USS Lynx II (SP-730)

USS Lynx II (SP-730), later USS SP-730, was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel and harbor dispatch boat from 1917 to 1919.

Lynx II ca. spring 1917 as a private motorboat, prior to her U.S. Navy service.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Lynx.
USS Lynx II at Lockwood's Basin at Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1918
History
United States
Name: USS Lynx II
Namesake: Previous name retained
Builder: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol, Rhode Island.
Completed: 1917
Acquired: 14 June 1917
Commissioned: 9 July 1917
Decommissioned: 19 May 1919
Renamed: USS SP-730 in 1918
Fate: Sold 2 September 1919
General characteristics
Type: Patrol vessel
Tonnage: 22 tons
Length: 58 ft 0 in (17.68 m)
Beam: 10 ft 11 in (3.33 m)
Draft: 3 ft 0 in (0.91 m) mean
Speed: 21 knots
Complement: 9
Armament: 1 × 1-pounder gun
From left to right starting at bottom center of photograph, the U.S. Navy patrol vessels USS Kiowa (SP-711), USS Skink (SP-605), USS Whistler (SP-784), and USS Lynx II (SP-730) at Lockwood's Basin in Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1918. The passenger and cargo ship USS Moosehead (ID-2047) is at left.
  • Note: USS Lynx II (SP-730) should not be confused with patrol vessel USS Lynx (SP-2), which served in the United States Navy during the same period.

Lynx II was built as a private motorboat of the same name for Nathaniel F. Ayer[1] of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1917 by Herreshoff Manufacturing Company at Bristol, Rhode Island, designed with Navy patrol service in mind. The U.S. Navy purchased her from Ayer[2] on 14 June 1917. She was enrolled in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve on 21 June 1917, then commissioned on 9 July 1917 at Boston with Chief Boatswain's Mate S. O. Joyce, USNRF, in command for service during World War I.

Assigned to the 1st Naval District, Lynx II throughout the period of the United States' participation in World War I served as a dispatch boat and dispatch and harbor patrol boat at Boston. She patrolled the Massachusetts coast from Boston to Provincetown. She also guided arriving and departing merchant ships through the defensive sea area of the Port of Boston. Probably to avoid confusion with patrol boat USS Lynx (SP-2)—another Ayer[3]-built boat -- Lynx II was renamed USS SP-730 in 1918.

SP-730 was decommissioned on 19 May 1919. She was sold on 2 September 1919 to Kemp Machinery Company of Baltimore, Maryland.

Notes
  1. Ayer, called "Ayers" in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry for USS Lynx (SP-2) (see http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l33/lynx-ii.htm), was active in the Preparedness Movement and also had USS Lynx (SP-2) built for possible naval patrol service.
  2. Or "Ayers," per http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l33/lynx-ii.htm.
  3. Or "Ayers," per http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l33/lynx-ii.htm.
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References
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